Here are edited excerpts from my colleague Martin E. Comas' phone interview with Crump. The story about the Martin-Zimmerman coverage is in Sunday's edition of the Sentinel.

Q. How did you decide to bring the story to the media?

A. "When they [Trayvon Martin’s family] called, I just could not understand why the police would not arrest the killer of an unarmed child. I said: ‘Let’s give it three days.’ I told him [Tracy Martin, Trayvon's father]: ‘They are going to arrest him [Zimmerman]. They would have to arrest him.’

"From there, two or three days later, Mr. Martin called and he said: ‘Mr. Crump, they [police] told me, they weren’t going to arrest him.’ I told him to have faith. But he was telling me, with a desperate tone in his voice, ‘But he killed my son.’

"I said, 'We’ve got to make something happen. The only way we can make something happen is by showing the world.' I think that people would be just as disturbed as I was and Mr. Martin was, after finding out about what happened to Trayvon Martin.

"When he got killed no one covered it at first. And it was like no one cared. So we started calling people [in the media], trying to get them to cover this story. I knew the media would need to get the information. I was calling everybody. I was telling them about Trayvon Martin, but no one knew anything about it. No one knew where Sanford was.

"When I called Rev. [Al] Sharpton before that press conference, he was in Selma, Ala. He told me: ‘That’s a shame. Let me talk to my producers. We’re certainly going to do something. That they didn’t even arrest the killer. We’re going to have to have him [Tracy Martin] on the show.’ So we then had a national audience to hear the facts."

Q. Were you surprised at how quickly the story spread in the media?

A. Yes and no. No in the sense that I knew that if people heard the facts, they would be bothered by it, and that they would be moved and that they would say: We can’t let this happen in 2012.

What was amazing is the fact that it became a major conversation all over the world and not just in Florida. And that was one of the things that showed that we have hope for our society; that when an unarmed child is killed, that the killer is at least arrested and brought to a court and let it be decided in a court. That was the role that a good, fair unbiased media plays in America. That’s why the media is so vital [to present the facts of a story] and get a conversation started..

"Things then started taking off really fast. Then people started talking about it. That they [police] were not going to make an arrest. And it was a perfect storm of issues, so many issues. It had this stand your ground law. You had this issue of equal justice. You had the issue of Neighborhood Watch. And then you had the issue of profiling

"You had all these issues, and people started talking about them. And the media knows that when they have an issue that a lot of people are talking about, they will cover it."

Q. As an attorney, how important was it to get your story out into the media, and how did you do it in a way that would draw the media’s attention?

A. "You show that you had a dead child and no one was held accountable for his death. A lot of lawyers don’t like talking to the media and about their cases. I understand that. I get it. Most lawyers prefer to try their cases in the courtroom.

"But in my experience, in civil-rights cases, if you don’t present your case in the court of public opinion, there's no guarantee -- no matter how egregious the facts are -- there is no way you'll be able to present your case in a court of law.

"I think the media is vitally important in presenting to the world and the court of public opinion [the facts of a story] so that court officials and the officers of the court all know that the world is watching and that we have to be fair and apply equal justice no matter who the person is. That a black child born to the poorest and most uneducated parents, that that child has the same exact, same rights as the child born to the wealthiest, most educated parents. But we know that’s not the case. All we’re asking for is equality. Black or white, you still have a child who is dead.

"And with Trayvon Martin, I kept the message very simple. All I did was hold up the facts. A child is walking with only Skittles and iced tea and is killed."

Q. Many people see this as a story about race. Is it?

A. "It shouldn’t be about race. But race is the elephant in the room. Nobody believes that if you make Trayvon Martin white [and the Neighborhood Watch volunteer black], there’s no way he would not be arrested, and that’s the unfortunate and tragic truth of the matter. There is a double standard. That’s why race is involved in this case.

Q. In the end, did the media play an important role?

A. "We want George Zimmerman to have a fair trial and that he has his day in court. But had it not been for the media showing these facts to the world, I'm not sure that we would've ever had Trayvon's killer going before a jury of his peers.

"These people [Trayvon’s parents] lost their child, and they had to fight to see the killer of their son arrested, and they did it with such dignity and grace. They have not been asking for an eye-for-an-eye, for a tooth-for-a-tooth. They’re asking for George Zimmerman to have his day in court."